In praise of those who just get on with it!

We have now finished our information evenings and are working our way through those that have applied. This we shall complete and announce the September group by Aug 28th.

However, one thing is very clear from both – those we have met through the information evenings and the applications chats – There is a lot going on out there that does real meaningful work with almost no awareness by the wheels of government.

I simply “had to”

Time and again we have encountered people who are just doing stuff because they simply “had to”. Faced with personal circumstances and with frankly little support from public systems they seemly get on with it, often not only for their own circumstances but invariably for others who are similarly lost.

A system failure

What is equally shocking is often the reaction of “our government bureaucracy” they encounter –very often, smug superiority, no empathy and no willingness to engage with any ideas that might be counter to the certainty they bring to matters they have little real direct experience of. At times it almost comes across as an attitude of when you are down, give them another kick just to make sure they stay in their place.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln instead of “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” we get “Government by the governing , of the people, for what the people should understand they need”. Strange experience to see side by side real effort, real commitment, real passion encumbered by an uncaring bureaucracy.

But to be equally clear it is not uncaring because the people it are so, but rather the system forces it that way. And, as when we often hear of “System failure” uttered by bodies such as HSC etc, I just wish the intelligent people who say this actually understand what they are really saying. A system failure is a management and leadership failure – their failure and indeed what they should be held accountable for fixing.

Keep going, keep striving!

So, for those who in spite of whatever obstacles are put in front of them keep going, keep striving, often simply because stopping is not an option – that’s leadership – and one can only howl at those that need to understand what leadership is about, that they might stop preaching at them and remember they are there by the will of the people for the people and step up in the same way the people they often decry have and are doing.